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News Worldwide impact of the novel coronavirus (covid-19)

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I had to kind of laugh (sad laugh) when I was thinking just a couple of days ago we were talking about fining people at parties for violating social distancing and mask rules. Then look at the news coverage of the riot. None of those people were wearing masks (very few trumpers will) and they certainly weren't social distancing.

The sad part about that (besides the threat to our whole democratic system) is we now have yet ANOTHER super spreader event here in 'merica.
There were thousands of them who will now scatter to the 4 corners of our country -- spreading covid as they go.

This is why we don't think about fining the 50 people at the party.
We have way bigger issues than that.
 
None of those people were wearing masks (very few trumpers will) and they certainly weren't social distancing.
The bozo in Pelosi's chair lives a county away from me. He's in Federal prison and could get a year in jail. I don't know what they thought they were going to accomplish. Idiots! Biden won and no riot is going to change that. And you're right. No masks. No regard for others or anyone.
 
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Soap is so important! Soap is amazing! It shows you how the soap interacts with the virus which is very interesting!

The trick is this all takes a little time to happen, and that’s why you need to take at least 20 seconds to wash your hands.



a happy song with chicken noises in the middle of it to cheer folks up.


Good news for Queenslanders, despite 18,000 of them getting tested yesterday, there are no new community transmission cases. 4 cases in quarantine. The three day lock down enabled the contact tracers to test all the close contacts, those who are all in quarantine and close contacts and will be tested again. Masks will needed to be worn for the next 14 days in order to prevent community transmission.

I watch the press briefings the way various news sources butcher or misrepresent or fail to mention what are important factors is a worry. We need brighter people with basic intelligence to become reporters/journalists.


The second person in pink - obviously didn't watch the press briefing because they only said they would wait until today to make an announcement, not the potential drama she presented. How is it possible to be that dim? Particularly after they have access to reading what other journalists have said who did go to the press briefing. Plagerising would mean a better health message with just a tad of accuracy. If you actually relied on the news it could be very confusing. I feel for people who aren't science orientated, fascinated by constructions of the news, or don't have the time to do research.

Australia is not as good as Taiwan, Mongolia, Iceland, New Zealand, Portugal & Vietnam were up there at one point - they don't have ventilators so they stopped the spread.

Our household wears masks at all times and that is our thing. We have some pretty colourful and entertaining ones now.

Dr John Campbell has been covering the virus for over a year now and has called a lot of things on the way. He is a medical communicator that I see on various media at times. I listened to him this morning. His stuff on Vitamin D is interesting, of course vaccination is best practice for first responders, but if Vitamin D is all you have got and you are a person of Colour, an Asian person, I will find his video and post that here. I have so many people that I want to take Vitamin D but it's my own anxiety so I have to work through that first. Apparently the dog in the photo changes it's mask each video. His occasional professional development is over my head but I keep learning.


and Prof Raina MacIntyre puts her professional development sessions up online and I watch as many of them as possible.


She's calm and factual and a quiet, presence of medical communication in Australia. I have a lot of admiration of her.

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As I have mentioned before what concerns me now is that Oxford Astra-Zeneca has only a 62% efficacy (see 13:37) and to get herd immunity in Australia we would need 100% vaccination, which won't happen.

Good news though there are 60 vaccines in clinical development and 172 in pre-clinical using the four basic technologies whole viron, protein subunit, nucleic acid and viral vector. It's a steep learning curve for me. But there is a lot of good science coming our way. It's just how many folks will die before vaccinations start in earnest.

What bugs me the most is that it seems that David Sharma has shares in the pharmaceutical company, so that is a concern. So we may be given a not best practice vaccine for his wealth making, which I find concerning.

Liberal Member for Wentworth Dave Sharma holds a sizable stock portfolio, as indicated in his declared pecuniary interests. In two separate coincidences, companies in which Sharma recently invested, subsequently enjoyed sudden sizable boosts to their share price.

Morrison's Anti-Accountability vaccine gets L-NP off Scott-free

He's been gainfully spending his time whinging about the most inconsequential things on Twitter. It's very poor form indeed. More normal people who actually care about other human beings need to run for parliament. We need the vaccines with 94% or 95% efficacy. If I could get vaccinated it's possible I could do some work? Yeah maybe not. We just have to wait and see what happens with everyone else. I am finding it really stressful, when there are processes that work, lock downs aren't fun but they save lives, the special type of racism Australia has about the science of our Asian neighbours pisses me off, and it's such an easy thing to do, for most people, I know an Elder, she was raped as a child, in a certain way, so masks she can't tolerate so she stays home. Not everyone can do everything but so many deaths and long term illness could be prevented.

I have been watching the spread of the virus throughout China on "China in Focus" it does have it's biases but listening to the folks who have been shut down without access to getting more food is most concerning. If only the CCP could be honest with the rest of the world it would be so useful. Different Provences are being shut down at different times, they are wearing masks but still needing to shut down their schools so it shows that possibly they have one of the more infectious variants. Their cleaners have better PPEs than a fair swag of the West's medical professionals. Sadly that's not their only major problem, millions have had to leave their homes due to flooding, and there are also food and power shortages so the poor Chinese are getting hammered. They do have 1 million prisoners of conscience, which is such a large number it's hard to wrap my head around it. The systemic racism and religious persecution Falun Gong and the Uighurs are living in very poor conditions, which will make them more susceptible to the virus. One of the Chinese vaccines has quite a few side effects so apparently the CCP are importing other vaccines for them. If that is borne out in fact checking that is concerning.

It will be interesting if they trace the virus back to Italy, if they find out that they positive test results are not false positives. How early was the coronavirus really circulating in Italy? Some of the Chinese whistle blower doctors said it wasn't the first time you got it that did the damage, and I was mocked for sharing that at one point but it will be interesting to know which we won't know really for years after it has been gotten under control. How early was the coronavirus really circulating in Italy?

I seriously have thought about going to do a degree in science the last few years. But
 
They project here in the US, much due to our location, 42% of the population is vitamin D deficient. At risk for D deficiency are premenopausal women, those with poor nutritional habits, people who take long-term meds, white people who don't get the minimal amount of sun (20 min. daily), shut-ins, and the elderly. In Australia, mild deficiency is estimated a 25%, while moderate to severe deficiency is estimated to be around 7 % . The closer you are to the equator, the more likely the population has a lower percentage of folks with vitamin deficiency because the sun is stronger nearer the equator.

While our fearless presidential leader said that he was giving $1200 to each American citizen to help them-that was a first check....I got 1200. I am retired, own my home, have a retirement, and I didn't need a stimulus check. A friend of mine bought a new front door.....the 1200.00 help her buy a new front door.....there was nothing wrong with the old door, but her front door ended up costing her 7000. My neighbor in a half-million dollar home, got a stimulus check. 6.5 trillion dollars was disseminated to folks in the US.....and the most needy got just 1200.....while people on waterfront property got one too. How crazy is that? Rather than dolling the money out to the states, based on the estimated need per state, they just sent checks in the mail to people they though might need the money. It's been crazy!

A friend of mine said that Covid will financially stabilize and secure our Social Security system for generations to come, as many elderly die off from covid. While that sounds kind of odd statement at first, there is much truth to be had about that. Our Social Security is paid into over time by workers, but the gov't was running out of money and they said it would be bankrupt in 5-10 years. That is the check the elderly count on which they paid into the system all their life-because of population inflation years ago, it wasn't accurately accounted for in the SS program. With so many elderly deaths, that will help to resolve the financial crisis for a while regarding Social Security.

As far as kids are concerned, here in my state, the governor is considering mandating year-round schools beginning this next year....with shorter periodic 2-3 week breaks, because kids in general aren't doing well with home-schooling with the long summer break. More parents are opting their kids for only home-schooling for safety rather than part in-school and part home-school.

It is sad, but I don't see this resolving itself for at least another two years.
 
While our fearless presidential leader said that he was giving $1200 to each American citizen to help them-that was a first check....I got 1200
I got $0.

My work also doesn’t qualify for unemployment... my sister -and tens of thousands in my state- who DID qualify for unemployment still haven’t gotten it AND haven’t gotten any stimulus money. So it feels like their $0 weighs more. As tens of thousands qualified for tens of thousands -each, at this point- but no unemployment & no stimulus? Big fat whopping zero.

Similarly? People without addresses, people whose ID expired whilst the DOL was shut down, and a whole host of others also got zero.

We don’t live in a country that gives a f*ck about its people. We live in a country that gives a f*ck about commerce. If you want any actual assistance? Create a business. Your business will have more protection, aid, & legal rights than you do as a person.

As far as waterfront homes go? It’s been moving truck central along the lake here... because $1200 doesn’t cover the 10,000 every 6 months in property taxes. The govt stopped all renter evictions, but not tax leins & evictions. So the city is “auctioning” off the upper middle class waterfront homes (mostly being bought by either the city itself, or the banks) & turfing multiple generation homes, as all the kids and grandkids have moved in to save money.

The GRIFT going on with this pandemic? Is going to fuel investigative journalists and courtrooms for yeeeeeeeears.
 
While our fearless presidential leader said that he was giving $1200 to each American citizen to help them-that was a first check....I got 1200. I am retired, own my home, have a retirement, and I didn't need a stimulus check
I got two. The $1,200 back in March ish I was expecting. Here last month or so got another $600 that I was not expecting as I haven't been watching any news for months. I don't know what the second one is based on but I needed neither. I mean, its helping me save more for a car faster but I needed neither to live. I am still employed and got a raise due to Covid and am making more now then I ever have in my life. I feel so guilty about the stimulus that I don't need when there are people like @Friday that not only may need it but also served the country. If anyone gets the stimulus, the retired and active veterans should be first to get it. I mean, I think my dad got the stimulus and he's a retired veteran but still. It seems all wrong to give the stimulus to still working people but not people not working that served our country. Or anyone not working due to Covid. This was all handled so wrong that yes, I see litigations spanning years.

My therapist told me that Florida is handling the vaccine differently. I didn't know states handle them differently. They are giving anyone 65 and over the vaccine. So he has his appointment. I texted my dad to tell him to make sure he has his appointment setup or to set one up. I thought the whole country was doing hospital staff and those in assisted living facilities first but apparently Florida is doing anyone above 65 and hospital staff first.
 
Listening to this to distract myself:
I am immersing myself in meditation and TEAM-CBT to learn as much as I can. I have joined a few online meditation groups, study groups and I am doing different courses. I am really good at researching.

And I am watching this and reading his book. SARS-CoV-2 disproportionately kills and infects people of colour. Brown, Black, First Nations people are being infected and there's the disproportionate amount of disabilities that this will bring in to those communities, and dying from much more than Anglo White people from Covid19 and now, perhaps, Covid20


And these podcasts are 10 minutes each so we listened to these this morning.

They interview Mr Edward Holmes from the Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity at the University of Sydney. It's always good to hear from the experts. The virus has been mutating since day one, and that's absolutely to be expected. It was discussed that it's more human behaviours that are spreading the virus rather than the virus itself. I can't wait to see the research on this over time.

Sadly an Australian politician owns shares in CSL/Astrazeneca and if we want herd immunity we don't want the one with 62% efficacy. But it's the one that we are most likely to get. It is better than nothing. However we want the ones with roughly 95% efficacy. If one can prevent infection then that's the one we want to get out to everyone. There's a whole stack more in development too, 124 or 127, I can't remember, as well. So the best ones might be yet to come. If you have out of control spread you really want to be getting the vaccines out there. We are not certain of the situation in NSW. I have medical friends that live on the North Shore. They are in lock down except when going to work. It would make sense to do ring vaccinations around the areas of outbreak. All medical people, the elderly, all folks who deal with quarantine, anyone with a serious pre-existing conditions, but Australia is not doing that.

And I am so hanging out for the numbers of deaths and infections to go down. Watching this is so sad and stressful. I disconnect at times but I still know so many folks effected. And the humanity of folks that don't have ventilators in their areas/countries is most sobering. It's really effecting medical folks who have to make those decisions triaging and rationing care.

The preliminary data out of Israel offers some hope and I am so clinging to that hope. It would seem - and there's no testing or research to bear this out yet so it's me clinging to the whiff of hope. That the vaccine is preventing spread, which would be a total game changer. So it's not published but apparently after the first dose, of Pfizer, there's about 200,000 people aged over 65, that in those people, compared to members of the health funds who have not yet had the vaccine, they've seen a significant reduction, perhaps a 50% reduction in COVID-19 infection, not just disease but infection If this is true then it will be a game changer in this pandemic. It will mean getting access to the vaccine/s becomes an urgent social justice issues for those peoples that are being infected and dying disproportionately from the virus.

Getting vaccine supplies to the countries with poor or no existing health systems is going to be crucial for containment of the pandemic. Some folks are making an effort which is to be applauded.


If first world countries just vaccinate themselves, and leave third world countries to their fate then a variant will just come back and bite them on the butt. You would hope that social justice and decency would play a significant part in decision making, but sadly that doesn't seem to be the case, in some circumstances, so blatant self interest needs to be thoroughly exploited, if you vaccinated your country and not others then you are at a high risk of getting wiped out by a variant that you might not know for 6-8 weeks is in your country and you could have out of control spread before you know it. We have seen it happen.

Any country could easily become Ireland.

Going into Christmas week, Ireland was reporting 10 new coronavirus cases each day per 100,000 residents — compared with about 66 cases per 100,000 residents in the United States. But three weeks later, Ireland is reporting more than 132 new cases per 100,000, according to the latest seven-day rolling average compiled by Johns Hopkins University, while the United States has risen less dramatically, to about 75 cases per 100,000.

Link Removed

The social justice issues involved in preserving habitats and mitigating climate change now has a massive self interest component. It is possible that the pandemic came out of bats that lost their habitats, which is happening in Australia, and the Lyssa virus has evolved. When I looked after bats I had to get vaccinated from it. My titre levels have to be checked regularly when I am caring for the bats.

I was reading scientific paper that tracked the destruction of habitat and surges of the plague throughout several hundred years. So we had the knowledge to prevent this but we didn't do it, and some countries don't really have many resources. When WHO said that this might not be the worst pandemic to come our way it really made me not do my usual happy dance.

They need food in Yemen but they also desperately need the vaccines as well. That war does bug me, and combined with the spread of the virus. I feel frustrated.

I got $0.
Egads!
My work also doesn’t qualify for unemployment... my sister -and tens of thousands in my state- who DID qualify for unemployment still haven’t gotten it AND haven’t gotten any stimulus money. So it feels like their $0 weighs more. As tens of thousands qualified for tens of thousands -each, at this point- but no unemployment & no stimulus? Big fat whopping zero.
That is most concerning.
Similarly? People without addresses, people whose ID expired whilst the DOL was shut down, and a whole host of others also got zero.
Homeless folks in Australia have hard times and no access. There were folks in my local area asking for food and money donations and then going out during the lock down to make sure that those who can't get access to services that were in lock down had something. Women on the run from domestic violence who are not in women's refuge and we had severe funding cuts. Abbott cut back 300 million dollars. So many women live in their cars with their kids. The greatest growing populations of homeless people in Australia is women 65 years and older and one time I was besieged by them, all with their disconnected phones with the pictures of their grandchildren. I was so emotional at the end of the day, seeing what that homelessness looked like.
We don’t live in a country that gives a f*ck about its people. We live in a country that gives a f*ck about commerce. If you want any actual assistance? Create a business. Your business will have more protection, aid, & legal rights than you do as a person.
Australia is pretty similar. The arguments were "We have to learn to live with the virus". Folks can go to hospital we have extra capacity.

Taiwan never needed to lock down because they put health first. Taiwan has the same population as Australia. They had direct flights from Wuhan. Taiwan has had (so far) 7 deaths & 819 infections. In comparison Australia has had 28,658 infections, and 909 deaths, the majority which were in private aged care homes, which are a federal responsibility. In Taiwan is no virus anxiety there. Children never had to stay home from school. Kids wore masks immediately. None of my friends are worried about friends or family in Taiwan. Kids wear masks all day at school, except during lunch when splatter screens are put up whilst they eat. The government gave each adult & child 2/3 masks each week. They tested arriving visitors on planes. Testing is free and very efficient. Everyone goes into paid quarantine with no exemptions from quarantine. (Quarantine exemptions have been an issue in Australia). Specialised quarantine taxis are paid each day whether they take customers or not, so they are not tempted to do extra jobs on the said to help them pay rent and buy foold. It is illegal to spread and misinformation about the virus in Taiwan. Unsurprisiningly there has been no community spread. Let's remembe they had direct flights from China and they didn't trust the CCP and send their own doctors to inspect Wuhan. First lock down was before the holidays in early January. Taiwan's economy grew 1.6%. And our economy has been hit. Our quarantine is very poor and some of those advising our government are not up to do on aerolisation which I can't believe that's still a thing that we are discussing.

As far as waterfront homes go? It’s been moving truck central along the lake here... because $1200 doesn’t cover the 10,000 every 6 months in property taxes. The govt stopped all renter evictions, but not tax leins & evictions. So the city is “auctioning” off the upper middle class waterfront homes (mostly being bought by either the city itself, or the banks) & turfing multiple generation homes, as all the kids and grandkids have moved in to save money.
:( They need to be exposed for what they are doing. It's so predatory.
The GRIFT going on with this pandemic? Is going to fuel investigative journalists and courtrooms for yeeeeeeeears.
It's similar in Australia. Some companies have grifted big time.

We are compiling a list of companies and businesses that have exploited workers, not provided PPEs, or sick pay, like Jeff Benzo, etc and misused government bail out funds, which we will boycott as much as possible, for the rest of our lives. If they change their names or their CEOs, or board members, change companies. We will boycott those CEO's and board member's new companies and from time to time we will write to let them know that is why. It's a small stand but it feels important for my ethical and moral stances in life. It's taking the action that I can take.

Qantus got a payout and then sacked it's workers.




Companies generally ripping off the Australian taxpayer's. Australia's Top 40 Tax Dodgers 2020: fossil fuels dominate once more - Michael West
 
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Listening to this to distract myself:
I am immersing myself in meditation and TEAM-CBT to learn as much as I can. I have joined a few online meditation groups, study groups and I am doing different courses. I am really good at researching.

And these podcasts are 10 minutes each so we listened to these this morning.

They interview Mr Edward Holmes from the Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity at the University of Sydney. It's always good to hear from the experts. The virus has been mutating since day one, and that's absolutely to be expected. It was discussed that it's more human behaviours that are spreading the virus rather than the virus itself. I can't wait to see the research on this over time.

Sadly an Australian politician owns shares in CSL/Astrazeneca and if we want herd immunity we don't want the one with 62% efficacy. But it's the one that we are most likely to get. It is better than nothing. However we want the ones with roughly 95% efficacy. If one can prevent infection then that's the one we want to get out to everyone. There's a whole stack more in development too, as well. So the best ones might be yet to come. If you have out of control spread you really want to be getting the vaccines out there. We are not certain of the situation in NSW. It would make sense to do ring vaccinations around the areas of outbreak. All medical people, the elderly, all folks who deal with quarantine, anyone with a serious pre-existing conditions.

And I am so hanging out for the numbers of deaths and infections to go down. Watching this is so sad and stressful. I disconnect at times but I still know so many folks effected. And the humanity of folks that don't have ventilators in their areas/countries is most sobering. It's really effecting medical folks who have to make those decisions triaging and rationing care.

The preliminary data out of Israel offers some hope and I am so clinging to that hope. It would seem - and there's no testing or research to bear this out yet so it's me clinging to the whiff of hope. That the vaccine is preventing spread, which would be a total game changer.

Getting vaccine supplies to the countries with poor or no existing health systems is going to be crucial for containment of the pandemic. Some folks are making an effort which is to be applauded.


If first world countries just vaccinate themselves, and leave third world countries to their fate then a variant will just come back and bite them on the butt. You would hope that social justice and decency would play a significant part in decision making, but sadly that doesn't seem to be the case, in some circumstances, so blatant self interest needs to be thoroughly exploited, if you vaccinated your country and not others then you are at a high risk of getting wiped out by a variant that you might not know for 6-8 weeks is in your country and you could have out of control spread before you know it. We have seen it happen.

Any country could easily become Ireland.

Going into Christmas week, Ireland was reporting 10 new coronavirus cases each day per 100,000 residents — compared with about 66 cases per 100,000 residents in the United States. But three weeks later, Ireland is reporting more than 132 new cases per 100,000, according to the latest seven-day rolling average compiled by Johns Hopkins University, while the United States has risen less dramatically, to about 75 cases per 100,000.

Link Removed

The social justice issues involved in preserving habitats and mitigating climate change now has a massive self interest component. It is possible that the pandemic came out of bats that lost their habitats, which is happening in Australia, and the Lyssa virus has evolved. When I looked after bats I had to get vaccinated by it.

I was reading scientific paper that tracked the destruction of habitat and surges of the plague throughout several hundred years. So we had the knowledge to prevent this but we didn't do it, and some countries don't really have many resources. When WHO said that this might not be the worst pandemic to come our way it really made me not do my usual happy dance.

They need food in Yemen but they also desperately need the vaccines as well. That war does bug me, and combined with the spread of the virus. I feel angry and frustrated.

I got $0.
Egads!
My work also doesn’t qualify for unemployment... my sister -and tens of thousands in my state- who DID qualify for unemployment still haven’t gotten it AND haven’t gotten any stimulus money. So it feels like their $0 weighs more. As tens of thousands qualified for tens of thousands -each, at this point- but no unemployment & no stimulus? Big fat whopping zero.
That is most concerning.
Similarly? People without addresses, people whose ID expired whilst the DOL was shut down, and a whole host of others also got zero.
Homeless folks in Australia have hard times and no access. There were folks in my local area asking for food and money donations and then going out during the lock down to make sure that those who can't get access to services that were in lock down had something. Women on the run from domestic violence who are not in women's refuge and we had severe funding cuts. Abbott cut back 300 million dollars. So many women live in their cars with their kids. The greatest growing populations of homeless people in Australia is women 65 years and older and one time I was besieged by them, all with their disconnected phones with the pictures of their grandchildren. I was so emotional at the end of the day, seeing what that homelessness looked like.
We don’t live in a country that gives a f*ck about its people. We live in a country that gives a f*ck about commerce. If you want any actual assistance? Create a business. Your business will have more protection, aid, & legal rights than you do as a person.
Australia is pretty similar. The arguments were "We have to learn to live with the virus". Folks can go to hospital we have extra capacity.

As far as waterfront homes go? It’s been moving truck central along the lake here... because $1200 doesn’t cover the 10,000 every 6 months in property taxes. The govt stopped all renter evictions, but not tax leins & evictions. So the city is “auctioning” off the upper middle class waterfront homes (mostly being bought by either the city itself, or the banks) & turfing multiple generation homes, as all the kids and grandkids have moved in to save money.
:( They need to be exposed for what they are doing. It's so predatory.
The GRIFT going on with this pandemic? Is going to fuel investigative journalists and courtrooms for yeeeeeeeears.
It's similar in Australia. The companies have grifted big time. Qantus got a payout and then sacked it's workers.





Companies generally ripping off the Australian taxpayer's. Australia's Top 40 Tax Dodgers 2020: fossil fuels dominate once more - Michael West

Taiwan never needed to lock down because they put health first. Taiwan has the same population as Australia. They had direct flights from Wuhan. Taiwan had 7 deaths & 819 infections. There is no virus anxiety there. None of my friends are worried about friends or family in Taiwan. Kids wear masks all day at school, except during lunch when splatter screens are put up whilst they eat. Government gave each adult & child masks each week. Tested on planes. No exemptions from quarantine. Illegal to spread misinformation. No community spread. Economy grew 1.6%. Australia has had 28,658 infections, and 909 deaths, the majority which were in private aged care homes, which are a federal responsibility. And our economy has been hit. Our quarantine is very poor and some of those advising our government are not up to do on aerolisation which I can't believe that's still a thing that we are discussing.
 
Sadly an Australian politician owns shares in CSL/Astrazeneca and if we want herd immunity we don't want the one with 62% efficacy. But it's the one that we are most likely to get. It is better than nothing. However we want the ones with roughly 95% efficacy. If one can prevent infection then that's the one we want to get out to everyone. There's a whole stack more in development too, 124 or 127, I can't remember, as well. So the best ones might be yet to come. If you have out of control spread you really want to be getting the vaccines out there. We are not certain of the situation in NSW. I have medical friends that live on the North Shore. They are in lock down except when going to work. It would make sense to do ring vaccinations around the areas of outbreak. All medical people, the elderly, all folks who deal with quarantine, anyone with a serious pre-existing conditions, but Australia is not doing that.
Please be accurate ^^ That politician didn't recently acquire that investment & it has been fully and publicly declared in compliance with Parliamentary rules. He's not hiding anything and he's done nothing wrong. If this had been a fossil fuel crisis would you be going after ppl who drive cars or have superannuation investments in that industry? He certainly wouldn't be the only person to have investments in pharma & scientific research. In fact without investment they wouldn't exist and we wouldn't be anywhere near making a vaccine for this. So thank your lucky stars he and millions of other Australians and individuals around the world do invest their money in this kind of industry. And furthermore, he didn't plan & execute his investments on the possibility that there'd be a pandemic because nobody saw this coming.

The vaccine we are getting is effective. You've quoted the stats at the bottom end of the spectrum - 62% when in fact it ranges upwards of - 75 % effective. It will prevent serious disease if we get covid19. It is very stable meaning it can be disseminated to Australians without the incredibly difficult storage requirements of the other vaccines thus far being used around the world. It is made in Australia and Australia is geared up to manufacture it for our country and small island nations that surround us and anywhere else where conditions are such that deep refrigeration storage is simply not possible. So this vaccine can be taken quite simply to remote areas and given to those ppl you are suggesting will be missing out.

No vaccine is 100% effective & no vaccine will prevent a human becoming in infected with covid. All a vaccine is designed to do is prevent serious disease caused by the virus. Like pneumonia.

The Northern shores of NSW are now no longer in quarantine. That was lifted two days ago and relatively speaking they were only on a stay home order for a few weeks.

Australia has a plan that has been well published & disseminated in respect to distribution of the vaccine. It is commencing in February and March 2020 in time for the commencement of our winter I'd guess. Last I heard the Australian government had ordered 51 million doses. That's going to be plenty enough for a start. But of course they've also ordered a couple of different types from different manufacturers. So there's more on the way.

I guess you are extremely lucky that you can actually consider picking and choosing and whining about it all when so many cannot?

There is no point having a knee jerk reaction to a small cluster outbreak. It has been appropriately dealt with.

f first world countries just vaccinate themselves, and leave third world countries to their fate then a variant will just come back and bite them on the butt. You would hope that social justice and decency would play a significant part in decision making, but sadly that doesn't seem to be the case, in some circumstances, so blatant self interest needs to be thoroughly exploited, if you vaccinated your country and not others then you are at a high risk of getting wiped out by a variant that you might not know for 6-8 weeks is in your country and you could have out of control spread before you know it. We have seen it happen.

There's no suggestion from any Western nation that third world countries will miss out on the vaccine's. The WHO is stating the obvious which when they're not completely missing the mark, they do a lot of.

But first, and without doubt it would seem reasonable, those countries that are considered first world, must vaccinate their own peoples first! Are you suggesting that we/they shouldn't??


Australia is pretty similar. The arguments were "We have to learn to live with the virus". Folks can go to hospital we have extra capacity.

I reject your suggestion that anyone in Australia has said ^^. None of us want the virus let alone want to live with it. Hence entire States of Australia are still shut & nobody can enter or leave without a permit. The capacity for taking in patients with covid is not and never has been the optimal method of dealing with covid here in Australia nor anywhere else in the world. Hence we had the enormous lockdown to save the ICU resources that we did have. Surely you recall the massive public campaign to 'flatten the curve'?? Our ICU capacity is finite & carefully managed. Check your sources!
It's similar in Australia. The companies have grifted big time. Qantus got a payout and then sacked it's workers.
There is grift everywhere. The pandemic didn't invent it and it'll happen wherever greedy humans see an opening. Australia is not similar at all. If people were being evicted from harbour side mansions here in Australia I can easily predict we'd all know about it. It isn't happening. In fact quite the opposite - landlords will do just about anything to hang onto tenants because the market has contracted and there's not the demand there was. House prices are booming by the way - we are out of recession and job vacancies are back to pre-covid. There are plenty of businesses that cannot get employees. Our rural sectors, fruit picking etc are screaming for workers.

Qantas is but one airline and honestly if it has to shed workers to survive then I guess that's a business decision. We've had it's only major competitor go to the wall already. What do you want a airline that can survive or none at all? Of course workers are pissed off - who wouldn't be? It isn't good at all but your suggestion that they're corrupt is not accurate.

Companies that have ripped off the Federal government will be found out - sooner than later. I'm not too sure much will come of it but that's another story.

aiwan never needed to lock down because they put health first. Taiwan has the same population as Australia. They had direct flights from Wuhan. Taiwan had 7 deaths & 819 infections. There is no virus anxiety there.
Taiwan also experienced previous SARS infections. I'm not sure how you can suggest they're not worried about the virus when they've shut down their ports because of concerns that the virus will enter via that route. They are on high alert & know full well that their relative virus free status is one single human being or mistake away from being a nightmare.

Homeless people here in Australia are by far and away better off than almost anywhere else in the world Ms Spock. We have a safety net for public housing & welfare. We have very active food banks & welfare organisations.

For sure it's not perfect but it's by far better than most other countries around the world and I know that many look at our medical/welfare systems with envy. I mean we're currently housing the homeless in five star hotel accommodation so they're not exposed to the virus if we had any of it around & the hotels get the benefit of some money via government. Where else is that happening?

Overall, I'm very pleased that the universe decided that I should be here in Australia when this pandemic hit. I don't see why you're not.
 
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I got two. The $1,200 back in March ish I was expecting. Here last month or so got another $600 that I was not expecting as I haven't been watching any news for months. I don't know what the second one is based on but I needed neither. I mean, its helping me save more for a car faster but I needed neither to live. I am still employed and got a raise due to Covid and am making more now then I ever have in my life. I feel so guilty about the stimulus that I don't need when there are people like @Friday that not only may need it but also served the country. If anyone gets the stimulus, the retired and active veterans should be first to get it. I mean, I think my dad got the stimulus and he's a retired veteran but still. It seems all wrong to give the stimulus to still working people but not people not working that served our country. Or anyone not working due to Covid. This was all handled so wrong that yes, I see litigations spanning years.

My therapist told me that Florida is handling the vaccine differently. I didn't know states handle them differently. They are giving anyone 65 and over the vaccine. So he has his appointment. I texted my dad to tell him to make sure he has his appointment setup or to set one up. I thought the whole country was doing hospital staff and those in assisted living facilities first but apparently Florida is doing anyone above 65 and hospital staff first.
In Virgina and some surrounding states, the healthcare workers and all residents in nursing homes get it first....regardless of age. Then people 65 and over are the second wave, and the general public will get it next. People with immune issues, lung issues, and who are high risk will get it before healthy folks because I'm understanding that doctors will make the choices which patients get the vaccine first vs later based on health needs.
 
Homeless folks in Australia have hard times and no access. There were folks in my local area asking for food and money donations and then going out during the lock down to make sure that those who can't get access to services that were in lock down had something. Women on the run from domestic violence who are not in women's refuge and we had severe funding cuts. Abbott cut back 300 million dollars. So many women live in their cars with their kids. The greatest growing populations of homeless people in Australia is women 65 years and older and one time I was besieged by them, all with their disconnected phones with the pictures of their grandchildren. I was so emotional at the end of the day, seeing what that homelessness looked like
We’re not a socialised country... on just 1 night in January (winter) there were over 550,000 in shelters, an estimated 1/3 of that on the street, and further estimates of over 5 million that can’t be tracked except by school waivers (there’s a federal bill that lets your kids attend the same school they’ve been attending when you don’t have an address to register them at IE couch-surfing, living in your car, shelters, on the street / any version or variation of homeless), and I’ve read anywhere from half that to twice that, (and one report that posited that for every individual we can track there’s 20-30 we cannot), who simply have no means of being tracked. Again, because we don’t have any kind of guaranteed benefits for people to apply for (you have to be 800% below the poverty line to even get food aid in my city, and that’s only $12 a month, not worth the months of fighting for it for most people... only to be told what number they are on a waiting list thousands of people long.). They can keep rough track of the camps, of applications for aid, of school waivers, of free clinics, foreclosures and evictions with no address updated in the postal system, and the occasional aerial survey for heat sigs in green spaces (maps are made when the police choppers are scanning for someone doing a runner... and individuals/small groups are crossed off as homeless/students/druggies/lovers/etc. ... and that data is passed on to watchdog groups), and interview the people who run the shelters to find out how many people are being turned away, and a few other things... but none of the algorithms agree... except it’s in the millions.

The pandemic MAY give us the best estimate to date on our homeless population, as the number of vaccines will be tracked... but it would still be our best estimate, rather than a sure number.
 
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We’re not a socialised country... on just 1 night in January (winter) there were over 550,000 in shelters, an estimated 1/3 of that on the street, and further estimates of over 5 million that can’t be tracked

^^For a country of such breadth, wealth & resources I can only shake my head in despair at those stats.

I think that societies can be judged by the way they treat their most vulnerable citizens. Often times they are the individuals that gave the most & receive the least.
 
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